If you don't I recommend it; it's a pretty good boxing manga, and up to around chapter 400ish it's fast paced and kinda reasonable, maybe. Things slow down after that, but it's still worth reading. Basically, boxing action gets better and the out of ring stuff gets worse.

Warning, though, the archive shock is literally the strongest it can possibly be when dealing with manga. This monster outweighs Detective Conan.

If you don't I recommend it; it's a pretty good boxing manga, and up to around chapter 400ish it's fast paced and kinda reasonable, maybe. Things slow down after that, but it's still worth reading. Basically, boxing action gets better and the out of ring stuff gets worse.

Warning, though, the archive shock is literally the strongest it can possibly be when dealing with manga. This monster outweighs Detective Conan.

I read some of Ippo and enjoyed what I read, even though boxing isn't really my cup of tea. Yeah... long series end up boring me, like Inuyasha, Naruto, Bleach, and Detective Conan, sigh.

I've had bouts of boredom with One Piece. The early anime is really really enjoyable, and for a long time too. It's kinda turned into a T&A session over the last couple seasons (the movies are really bad), but the manga is still exceptionally good. The anime is generally on track with the manga, but it does divert into some good and terribad filler arcs. Right now it's approaching a pretty good climax in the series, so it's been fun to watch.

After some digging, I managed to track down Fist of the North Star. I must say, I'm really impressed with how well it's drawn. Compared to the anime, which is animated very poorly (by today's standards, it was probably amazing for the 80's), the manga is strong. The anime is still fun to watch, and the acting is done well, and the story is still fun. The manga chases a different order to the storyline, and accomplishes some things rather quickly that I was surprised by. I won't spoil it, but it's worth the read. Very graphic though, and violent. It's not outright vulgar like Gantz is, but it's very violent. Not for children.

Even Bleach? Where the tentacle Hollow threatened to have Tatsuki gang raped?Even One Piece? Where a guy has his arm ripped off, another is shot point blank in the head, a young boy nearly cuts out his eye and a bunch of pirates get drunk in the first chapter?Even Naruto? Where Iruka gets stabbed in the spine with A GIANT FUCKING SHURIKEN AND PEOPLE DIE LIKE FLIES SWARMING AROUND A SOON TO EXPLODE PIEBOMB?Even Dragonball? Where the majority of the male characters are perverts (to a certain degree), battling to the near-death is a national sport and fighting someone is the default response to near everything?

I could go on, but I won't.

TL:DR Shonen isn't acceptable for anyone under the age of thirteen the majority of the time, in this humble posters opinion.

The stuff you mention in Bleach will probably go over the head of any small child, unless it is mentioned explicitly. You make a good case for One Piece. But not so much for Naruto and especially Dragonball. Naruto does have some violence, yes, but I personally wouldn't go as far as to say it would be disturbing to read for anyone under the age of, say, eight. Dragonball is so childish in its theme that I don't see how anyone over thirteen can read it without constantly rolling his eyes and chuckling condescendingly every other minute. I understand that you don't want to give small children a message that violence is okay but to think that even DB could be damaging is being overprotective. Still, this is only my impression (not even a clear opinion at this point) so I guess I could be completely in the wrong here.

There's this mindset among mangaphiles that manga is not for kids, used as a defence against the "you're reading comics therefore you're immature" argument we get from an environment where reading comics is considered to be a childish pastime. My motivation in arguing against you is that I think that this isn't a good defence, not that children should be exposed to violent media and whatnot.

Praised be the nightmare, which reveals to us that we have the power to create hell.

Naurgul wrote:But not so much for Naruto and especially Dragonball. Naruto does have some violence, yes, but I personally wouldn't go as far as to say it would be disturbing to read for anyone under the age of, say, eight. Dragonball is so childish in its theme that I don't see how anyone over thirteen can read it without constantly rolling his eyes and chuckling condescendingly every other minute.

I was purposefully getting more ridiculous with my claims related to the series I brought up as a joke. I honestly don't think that Dragonball would disturb anyone unless they were younger than ten or very sensitive to violence, but the latest chapters of Naruto are pretty damn bad considering it's original tone. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I believe it is Shippuden which would be innapropriate for younger readers, while the first part is fine. Also, a piebomb sounds delicious.

Naurgul wrote:There's this mindset among mangaphiles that manga is not for kids, used as a defence against the "you're reading comics therefore you're immature" argument we get from an environment where reading comics is considered to be a childish pastime.

I thankfully have never actually encountered that mindset, with the possible exception of a few people who seem to believe that manga = comic book and graphic novel != real novel. Near all of my friends are otakus (rocker/metalhead/emo/hipsterinthemaking ones at that) and as a result I don't really feel the need to defend my hobby against others, especially since the Manga versions of Shakespearean plays recently became popular in my school with English/Art teachers and quite a few students. However, I will admit that as a general rule of thumb I would discourage allowing children to view or read materials which are marked as being for an older age group, unless I happen to know for a fact that the child is either more mature than average or wouldn't take negatively to it.

Naurgul wrote:My motivation in arguing against you is that I think that this isn't a good defence, not that children should be exposed to violent media and whatnot.

Again, most of that post was meant to be taken non-seriously, but my point remains. With only a few exceptions, don't give shonen or to kids as it wouldn't be stated to be "manga marketed to a male audience roughly between the ages of 10 and 18" unless it had content not suitable for younger audiences. (the exceptions also include certain shonen manga which are geared more towards readers who are closer to ten than those who are eighteen.)

Children was probably the wrong word. Really what I should have said was "not for all audiences."

Fist of the North Star is the most violent manga I've read besides Gantz, and Gantz is just obscene at times so I haven't read much of it.

Honestly, I wouldn't allow a teenager to read those, if it were up to me, given how graphic they are. The Fist of the North Star anime is censored pretty heavily in most places where the manga otherwise draws it in excellent detail.

I started reading the Ranma ½ manga again. I've sort of read it before, but I thought I should give it a proper treatment. God thing I had forgot much.

The Koi Rod of Love chapter must be the funniest thing I've read since... I don't even remember. I literally laughed out loud on every page. Every. Page. The unthinkable setup (of an already pretty wild manga) is just so well played. I won't spoil, but reading the chapters up to this, even just as a pretext, is really worth it. Even apart from this chapter there is no excuse not to read it. It's hilarious.

On Gantz, I'm an adult and I'm still to young sometimes.

The Reaper wrote:I'm still fine with people having reactors, and still against them weaponizing the leftovers.

Walter Bishop wrote:Why would anyone kill a scientist? What have we ever done?

Anyone else out there getting annoyed at how TWGOK's pace seems to have slowed down in recent arcs?I mean, I'm not gonna drop it, but I sort of miss back when a single capture took ten chapters at most, but I suppose it's about time for an overarching plot to finally emerge. Just wish it didn't feel like it was taking so long for everything to play out.

So I finished CLAMP's xxHolic with the final chapter. And you know what? It just confirms my suspicion that writers just have to fuck up their shit with a rushed unraveling that reads more like a cold bucket of water to the face than putting some effort into sensibly closing the ends.

Seriously. xxxHolic has been running for 7 years. 7 fucking years I grew with it and now it comes to a pretty shitty end, this wonderful series. I'm not reading any more of your shit, CLAMP. What's the damned Japanese obsession with eternal gloom and doom and dragging their characters through a damned field of hot stones and spikes and any other shit they can pile on.

This is not life, I spend my fucking time investing on thousands of your pages, I better get a damn coherent and thorough resolution. And hopefully that resolution won't make your readership feel like utter shit on top of unfulfilled. FANTASY, WHAT DON'T YOU GET ABOUT IT? Perverse midget ladies I ought to drown home-made figures of you all in my voodoo cucumber jar.

Belial wrote:That's charming, Nancy, but all I hear when you talk is a bunch of yippy dog sounds.

So, over the course of the last couple of months, I've read the shit out of some Junji Ito. To the point where I'm pretty sure I'm out of his stuff, or at least the stuff that someone's bothered to translate to English. He pretty much keeps going back to similar themes of body horror and general weird shit going down that results in further body horror, which I know as far as Japanese Horror goes is kinda like asking about the Bollywood Movie where the guy and girl want to be together but can't and they sing and dance a lot.....

But... uh... any other suggestions for similarish stuff?

heuristically_alone wrote:I want to write a DnD campaign and play it by myself and DM it myself.

heuristically_alone wrote:I have been informed that this is called writing a book.

SecondTalon wrote:He pretty much keeps going back to similar themes of body horror and general weird shit going down that results in further body horror, which I know as far as Japanese Horror goes is kinda like asking about the Bollywood Movie where the guy and girl want to be together but can't and they sing and dance a lot.....

SexyTalon wrote:He pretty much keeps going back to similar themes of body horror and general weird shit going down that results in further body horror, which I know as far as Japanese Horror goes is kinda like asking about the Bollywood Movie where the guy and girl want to be together but can't and they sing and dance a lot.....

Dr. Frost -- Korean manhwa/webtoon about a professor-psychiatrist who is a combination of Dr. Tony Hill, Dr. Greg House, and Nia (Near) from Death Note. Somehow I find that blend of traits utterly irresistible... in a fictional character.

I started reading Fist of the North Star to read something when Berserk's busy not coming out. But I was quite underwhelmed. The action is good, but it's not Berserk. The dialogue could seriously be written better by a twelve-year-old. I hope it does get better soon.

The Reaper wrote:I'm still fine with people having reactors, and still against them weaponizing the leftovers.

Walter Bishop wrote:Why would anyone kill a scientist? What have we ever done?

Suugaku Girl - manga about math! Mostly pre-calculus and intro number theory so far. I find it rather poetic.

Gin no Saji - about a high schooler from the city who ends up at an agricultural school. From Arakawa Hiromu of Fullmetal Alchemist, but very different style: much slower paced, minimal swashbuckling, highly existential and ruminating.

Has anyone read nana? It's not my favorite kind of manga, but I have reached chapter 50 so normally I would just read the other 30 something chapters.

Spoiler:

But I find Nanas relationship with Takumi quite irritating. I don't know if I want to subject myself to reading about for another 30 chapter if there isn't some hope. By hope I mean signs that their relationship might end. So if someone has read it do they stay together?Oh and I made the error of reading the mangafox forum (I don't use the site anymore but it was one of the google results.) and there is quite a bit of Takumi fangirling. Well mangafox is always like that but am I the only one who thinks that Hachis relationship with Takumi is unhealthy and she should end it?

Well whatever time to read something else to get my mind of annoying relationships. Maybe I should catch up with Alita or claymore.